1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to a pitch and toss game in which throwing objects are pitched at a distance towards a target and points are scored in accordance with the relationship of the throwing object to the target after the thrown object has landed.
2. Description of Related Art.
Games requiring skill in the tossing of an throwing object towards a target are well-known in the art. One such pitch and toss game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,793 issued to Mudloff on Dec. 21, 1971. Mudloff discloses a bean-bag type of tossing and point-scoring game. Each bag trapping target provides an inclined surface and has a centralized bag-receiving hole. Points are scored when the thrown or tossed bean-bag either passes through the centralized bag-receiving hole or lands and stays upon the inclined surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,229, issued to Huber et al on Jan. 6, 1981, discloses a pitch and toss game with a plurality of circular disks and a target comprising an upright backboard and an inclined playing board with a circular opening. The disks are tossed and come to rest on the top surface of the playing board or fall through the opening. Points are scored in relation to the distance of the final resting place of the thrown disks to the circular opening.
The above-referenced patents fail to consider one important problem of pitch and toss games--the tendency of the thrown object to bounce and skip upon striking the target or the nearby ground. A poor throw, which would have been a low or no point toss, can be converted to a high scoring toss courtesy of a "lucky bounce." On the other hand, an excellent throw, deserving of a high score, can become transformed by an "unlucky bounce" into an undeserved low point score. Thus what is intended to be a game of skill too often is decided by a chance bounce of the thrown object and the skill level required to triumph in such a game is greatly reduced. Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a pitch and toss game which more accurately reflects the skill of the participants alone and reduces the affect of lucky bounces upon such a game. This invention reduces the affect of lucky bounces upon pitch and toss games by disclosing a throwing object and target of such weight, shape and construction, that when the throwing object is tossed, it will firmly stick to the target at the point of initial contact.
With the advent of contact engaging type materials such as "Velcro" manufactured by the Velcro Corporation of New York, N.Y., becoming commercially available, the use of such contact engaging materials to allow throwing object/target adherence upon initial target contact has become popular. U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,060, issued to Guinn on May 8, 1984, discloses a donut shaped projectile having hook material on one side of the projectile and complementary loop material on the other side for use in a target game. However, the projectile disclosed in Guinn is undesirable for use in pitch and toss games since should the wrong side of the projectile contact the target, the projectile would slip and not stick to the target.
Furthermore, the tendency of the thrown projectiles described in Guinn to stick upon one another is undesirable in a pitch and toss games. Thus, while throwing objects which adhere to their target upon initial throwing object/target contact have become common, there has yet to be a successful adaptation of this technology to the unique requirements necessary to maintain the integrity of the traditional pitch and toss games.
Another problem with the traditional pitch and toss games is that the game often becomes tiresome and not interesting after a short period of play, particularly with children with short attention spans. One solution to this problem would be to design a pitch and toss game which can be quickly and easily modified to permit users of the game to play other pitch and toss games. Other pitch and toss games which require different skills and strategies in playing would maintain playing interest longer than a pitch and toss game limited to one specific form of game.